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August 24, 2016

Uppu Seedai & Vella Seedai Recipe With Store Bought Rice Flour

Uppu Seedai/Salt seedai and Vella seedai/Sweet seedai recipes using store bought rice flour with tips and tricks to avoid bursting. Seedai is one of the most important Neivedyam recipes for Krishna Jayanthi @ Gokulashtami festival in Tamil nadu. Usually we make seedai recipes with homemade processed rice flour and roasted urad dal flour. I have already shared our traditional uppu Cheedai and vella cheedai recipes long back. This year, I tried cheedai using store bought rice flour as it is easy and quick to make. I used Anil Kozhukattai flour. I guess Idiyappam flour works well too. I won't say this seedai will melt-in-mouth like Adayar Ananda bhavan seedai, but it came out equally crispy and crunchy when compared with the traditional ones. Above all, It din’t burst. Cracks in the sweet seedai is unavoidable though. If you are a beginner, use the same quantity I mentioned here. Once you got them right, you can go for doubling the quantity. Friends, If you don’t have enough time to make processed rice flour but still want to make seedai, try this easy version with store bought rice flour. Follow the steps carefully if you are a beginner. You can make it really well. Have a great Krishna Jayanthi celebration. Check out my other Gokulashtami recipes in THIS LINK. Lets see how to make uppu seedai and vella seedai with rice flour ( Kozhukattai flour) and tips to make it without bursting.

Dry roast 1 cup( 250ml cup) of rice flour till it starts to emit vapour. Keep roasting in medium flame for few minutes to see the vapour. Try to draw a line to check if the flour is roasted well. Do not burn the flour. Let the flour cool down. Follow the same steps for Idiyappam flour as well. If you have dry rice flour, you don't have to roast it.

For Vella Seedai / Sweet seedai

Measure 1/2 cup of roasted rice flour in a sieve. To this, add either roasted urad dal flour OR roasted gram flour (Pottukadalai maavu). Sieve them very well in a bowl. This step helps to avoid bursting. So do not skip this step. Add sesame seeds or cumin seeds, salt, hing, ground coconut (optional) and softened butter ( unmelted butter). Mix well with your fingers. Make sure butter is well spread with the flour if you add it. Set aside.

In a kadai, take the grated jaggery. Add 2 tbsp of water and melt the jaggery by boiling it. Strain the syrup through a metal strainer. Mix this syrup, cardamom powder with the sieved rice flour mixture. Mix well. Add little water and make a non-sticky smooth dough.

Make small balls out of it and spread them in a newspaper. Make one or two small cylindrical shaped Seepankuzhal too ( Refer main picture). Let it air dry for 20 minutes. ( If you are a beginner, go for frying seedai in a mini kadai ( tadka pan) with little oil to check whether seedai burst or disperses in oil. Put just 2 balls and stay a feet away. Check if the seedai burst or disperses in oil. If seedai disperses in oil, either oil temperature may be too low or jaggery syrup or butter may be more. In that case, add little more rice flour and make a non-sticky dough. Make balls and again fry them in little oil. If it works fine, go ahead with batch frying.

Heat oil in a kadai and when it gets heated, put a pinch of seedai dough and check the oil temperature. If it comes up immediately, oil temperature is correct. Now simmer the flame to medium and drop seedai balls. Stay 2 feets away for safer side. Do not disturb for few seconds. Then toss the balls and put the balls and deep fry for few minutes.Keep turning both the sides for even cooking.Remove after it turns golden brown. Do not wait for the bubbles to stop. Drain them in a tissue. Cracks are unavoidable in sweet seedai. Store after it cools down. It may turn soft the next day. So to enjoy crunchy seedai, consume it on the same day !

For Uppu Seedai Recipe / Salt seedai

In a wide bowl, take 1/2 cup of roasted rice flour, urad dal powder or fried gram flour( pottukadalai maavu). Sieve twice to avoid bursting. Add cumin seeds, asafetida, salt and mix well. Add in soft butter and mix well with your finger tips. Make sure butter is well spread with the flour.

Add water little by little and make a dough. Make small balls using three fingers. Do not give pressure while rolling. Let the balls dry in a newspaper for 15-20 minutes.

Heat oil & check the oil temperature by dropping a pinch of dough. When it rises to the top, simmer the flame to medium & put a handful of seedai balls.Stay 2 feet away. Do not disturb the balls for few seconds. Then toss the seedai & cook till bubbles cease to 90%. Remove when the seedai turns golden. Let it cool down completely & then store in an air tight box. Enjoy for a week!

Note

First important thing to avoid bursting is to “SIEVE” the flour once or twice. U should sieve all the flour ( urad dal flour, rice flour). Sieving the flour properly reduces 90% of bursting.

Second thing, you should not roll the seedai very tightly. U should roll it to a loose ball using three fingers. No problem if its not a proper round.

One more tip is to prick the seedai with a small needle to avoid bursting. Dry the seedai in a paper or towel for 20 mins before frying.This is also very important.

Dry roast the flour till it starts to release vapour. Try to draw a line using the roasted flour.

Beginners can try deep frying few seedai in “small tempering kadai” .If it comes out well , proceed in a big kadai. Color variations may be there slightly. But u can check whether it bursts or disperses in oil.

If sweet seedai breaks or dissolves in oil , it means jaggery may be more or oil temperature is too high or too low.

If Seedai bubbles too much after u drop into oil ,it shows the fat ( ghee or butter or oil) content is more.So add more rice flour to the dough & make again.

The color of seedai depends on the color of urad dal flour. If u roast the dal to golden brown, seedai will also turn brown.

Uniform heating is also important. In my observation, I feel medium flame is enough to get a nice colored and crispy seedai.

Vella seedai turns soft the next day.So consume it on the same day to enjoy its best taste.

Adding coconut to seedai dough may reduce its shelf life.

Try this easy seedai recipes for this Krishna jayanthi and have a great celebration !

18 comments
:

Hi chitra, made your uppu seedai for the first time for janmashtami and it came out just perfect!!! Detailed description and pictorials helped me a lot. Thank you sooo much, will try vellai seedai sometime soon too and let u know :). Thanks once again :)

There are many reasons for the seedai dissolving in oil. Either flour is not roated well or the quantity of jaggery is more, butter is more in salt seedai or oil temperature is less for frying. You can add more flour, make the dough tight and make one seedai in a mini kadai as shown in the video. You will get it right.

Hi Chitra,this time also I want to try this recipe.can u tell me is it one table spoon urad dal powder for 1/2cup rice flour?because in Ur previous recipe it is one table spoon for one cup rice flour.please tell me .

Hi Harini, its 1 tbsp urad dal flour for 1/2 cup rice flour. Yesterday I followed the same for kara seedai adding pottukadalai flour. It came out so crunchy. You can increase butter from 1.5 to 2 tsp in this recipe. So if you use 1 cup rice flour, please add 2 tbsp urad dal flour and 4 tsp butter. Hope it works well:) Please share your feedback too.